Safe Harbour

And after a brief stop at Macy's, they went back to the hospital, and took up their vigil again at the ICU. And finally, by that night, Ophélie looked a little better. Bob, Jeff, and Millie had come by to see her, and noticed it too. And after they left, he was tucking Pip in with a warm blanket a nurse had given them, when she looked up at him from the couch.

“I love you, Matt.”

“I love you too, Pip,” he said quietly. He had bought enough clothes and underwear to keep him going for a week. Sooner or later, he'd have to go back to the beach, but he was planning to stay in the city with Pip for as long as he was needed. It didn't look like he'd be going home anytime soon.

“Do you love my mom too?” She'd never been exactly sure of what had gone on between them. They were both extremely discreet about it.

“Yes, I do.” He smiled down at her, and she smiled at him.

“Will you marry her when she gets better?” He liked the fact that she had said when and not if. He wanted to think of it that way too. “She needs you, Matt. And I need you too.” It almost made him cry listening to her, and he wasn't sure what to say to her. Before she'd been shot, Ophélie had been by no means sure of how she felt about him, or what she wanted to do about it, although he was totally sure of how he felt about her.

“I'd like to, Pip,” he said honestly. “I think we'd have to ask her, don't you?”

“I think she loves you too. She's just scared. My dad wasn't always so nice to her. He shouted a lot, mostly about Chad. Chad was pretty sick, and he did some pretty bad things, like try to kill himself. And my dad didn't think he was sick, so he shouted at my mom, and thought she was weird.” It was a fairly accurate account of what had happened, from what Matt knew too, although Pip had expressed it in her own terms. “I think maybe she's scared you might be mean to her too, although you've never been mean to us, but maybe she's afraid you would be if she married you. My dad was really grumpy and really smart, and maybe he wasn't as nice to her as he should have been… and she could be worried that you might die, because she really loved him, even though he was grumpy and mean and he never talked to us much. He was always busy, but I think he loved us anyway… do you think you could tell her that you'll be nice to us, and then she'll say yes. What do you think?” He didn't know whether to laugh or cry as he listened to her, and he leaned down and kissed her on the forehead instead.

“I think if she doesn't marry me, I should marry you. You make a lot of sense, Pip. That's what I think.”

She guffawed as she lay on the couch in the deserted waiting room. They were the only people there again that night, and she grinned at him. “You're too old for me, Matt, but you're pretty cute, for an old guy… like a father, I mean.”

“You're pretty cute too.”

“Will you ask her?” Pip looked anxious again. She had a lot on her mind.

“I'll do my best. I think we should wait till she feels better though, don't you?”

Pip thought about it, and then frowned at him. “I don't think you should wait too long. And it might make her feel better if you ask her to marry you. What do you think? It might help her feel a lot better, and give her something to look forward to.”

“It's a thought.” Or it might scare her to death. He knew there was that possibility, better than Pip. He remembered only too well the night in Tahoe when she had been too afraid to make love to him. Marriage may not have been the solution Pip hoped it would be. But as she did, he wished it would. She drifted off to sleep then, pleased about having spoken to him, and he sat there for a long time, watching her with a quiet smile.

He went to call Robert again then, he had promised he would, and reported what was happening. He had offered to come in from Stanford that morning. But Matt explained that Robert couldn't see her anyway, so he said he would call him to let him know how she was. And Robert was immensely relieved to hear from his father that at least she was still alive. He had been shocked when he first heard the news.

Ophélie's shooting was all over the eleven o'clock news that night. But the hospital had kept reporters away. And they reported with somber faces on the news that the volunteer from the Wexler Center who'd been shot was still in critical condition at San Francisco General, but still alive.